More than 3,600 students from throughout the Dallas area applied for just 225 openings in grades K-12 for next school year.

Now, after 15 years, the charter school is considering giving preference to students who live in certain ZIP codes near the school. And it’s a move that has some parents worried about the future of North Hills, which is rated as one of the nation’s top public high schools.

Yasmin Bhatia, CEO for charter school operator Uplift Education, said the change is an effort to align the school with Uplift’s mission to serve more economically disadvantaged students.

Though the school sits in the affluent Las Colinas area, administrators hope to draw families from some of the area’s high-density apartments.

Uplift operates 12 schools in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. As dictated by state law, charter schools admit students on a lottery system.

At Uplift schools, the first draw is for the children of faculty members. The second draw is for siblings of current students. The third at Uplift’s 11 other schools is for applicants from ZIP codes around the schools. Other students are admitted if spots are still available.

But North Hills, which opened as Uplift’s first school in 1997, has never had ZIP code preferences — until a June meeting of Uplift’s board of directors. Parents learned about the change in November, some through email exchanges and others while picking their kids up from school.

At a contentious meeting Dec. 6, about 100 parents demanded answers from Uplift administrators, who decided to suspend the change and form a parent-faculty committee to explore the issue.

“For us, it was a very modest change that would take years to have any impact,” Bhatia said. “We didn’t think we needed to go to the parent community broadly to get their input on it.”

Some of the parents say it isn’t an argument of rich vs. poor, but an issue of right vs. wrong.

“What makes an economically disadvantaged kid more deserving than a kid from a middle-class family? They’re both kids. They both deserve an education,” said Robert Bass, whose oldest daughter graduated from North Hills last year and whose younger two are currently enrolled.

Thomas Coffey, who has two children enrolled at North Hills, said he’s concerned, as are other parents, that Uplift is manipulating admissions. “I have nothing against low-income people. It’s the social engineering that bothers me,” he said.

Behind the numbers

According to the Texas Education Agency, North Hills is a racially diverse school. The middle school, for example, had a 2010-11 enrollment of about 53 percent Asian, 25 percent white, 15 percent Hispanic and 7 percent black students.

Of these students, 6 percent were classified as economically disadvantaged, according to the agency.

Bhatia said the ZIP code change could open the door to make North Hills more socio-economically diverse. She said the aim is for enrollment of economically disadvantaged students to increase to 30 percent to 40 percent as outlined in North Hills’ original charter to the state.

Three Uplift schools — Williams, Hampton and Summit International — were the first to have ZIP code preference for admissions. Now all Uplift schools, except for North Hills, have ZIP code preferences.

The 11 other schools also serve higher numbers of poor families than North Hills. For example, about 87 percent of the students at Peak Preparatory in Old East Dallas were classified as economically disadvantaged during the 2010-11 school year. That same year, Williams Prep, in northwest Dallas, drew about 93 percent of its students from poor families.

Striving to put North Hills’ demographics more on par, the board voted on a lottery system that would give preference to students in four Irving zip codes — 75038, 75039, 75062 and 75063 — for the middle and high schools, and two ZIP codes — 75038 and 75062 — for primary.

While those areas include affluent neighborhoods, they also have clusters of high-density apartments that cater to low-income families.

Zulikha Hussain, who has two students enrolled at North Hills, said she is concerned that the school’s own ZIP code — 75039 — might not be on the list for the primary grades.

“I think it’s horrible we have to exclude 75039 … that’s how all the families are feeling,” said Hussain, who lives a mile from North Hills.

She said she would have elected to live in Lewisville when she moved from Virginia last year if her son and daughter were not drawn for an Uplift school.

“I think every parent wants to give their child the best education,” Hussain said.

Change of focus

Since it opened, North Hills has been a beacon for a tuition-free education outside Irving ISD.

While it was founded to meet an educational need in north Irving, Uplift’s mission has shifted to provide poor families in struggling urban areas with better options for a public education.

North Hills is touted for its free public school education and private school standards found among gated schools such as nearby Cistercian Preparatory and The Highlands.

Its reputation has spread by word-of-mouth since the school’s inception. Each year, an increasing number of parents drop their children’s names into the lottery, particularly in north Irving as that area has grown.

“When North Hills opened, there wasn’t a lot of development on that site, but over time, it’s become a more affluent ZIP code, which adds to the complications,” Bhatia said. “We wouldn’t in the future pick this for a site.”

Michael Terry, communications director for Uplift, said that for the next school year applicants from wealthier areas outweighed those from lower-income areas, though he didn’t have specific numbers.

He said some struggling parents don’t know how to navigate the school system and might not be aware of the school. Uplift has begun providing resource programs for those parents, many of whom are immigrants.

Going forward, Bhatia is determined to address the parents’ concerns at North Hills while striving to meet Uplift’s mission.

She said Uplift is taking applicants for parent volunteers to serve on the North Hill committee.

“I’ve dragged concrete blocks to make a makeshift parking lot before we had a parking lot. I helped plant trees,” Bass said.